You're an Animal by Jardine Libaire

 

Published by Hogarth on August 8, 2023

You’re an Animal is a domestic drama about an unconventional, makeshift family of misfits who develop a bond as they struggle to live off the grid in Texas. Ray misses his affiliation with a motorcycle gang. Staci is still coupled with Ray but feels “vaguely unwelcome in the world” as she recalls the self-help lessons she learned in addiction recovery programs. Coral doesn’t speak — she scarcely acknowledges that the others exist — but Ernie can’t stop fantasizing about making a white-picket-fence life with her.

The novel begins with a group of outlaws living on a compound in Oklahoma. Tim is married and has a new baby. Tim’s uncle owns the property but is in prison for gun crimes, making Tim the de facto property manager. He also manages the meth operation. Tim is thinking about abandoning the compound and making a new life.

Assorted tweakers and bikers come and go. Coral was dropped off by Tim’s half-sister after Coral’s grandmother died. She is better than Tim's wife at nursing his baby. Ernie is the meth cook until a new arrival with a better recipe takes over. Several people make meth deliveries but Tim only trusts Ernie to pick up cash.

The communal relationship works (more or less) until a fire consumes the meth lab. Ray and Staci are shopping for supplies with Ernie and Coral when the fire breaks out. Ernie has also collected money for meth sales, so they have a supply of cash. On their way back, they see smoke coming from the commune. They also see police cars. Deciding that their best option is to disappear, they eventually rent an isolated home in Texas, where they use their skills to start a new meth lab. They learn that Tim survived the fire, but he’s essentially abandoned them so they decide they won’t return his money. Ray is concerned that Tim will find them, creating tension whenever a car parks near their property.

Most of the novel’s drama comes from the domestic relationships formed by the four characters who make a home in Texas. They plant a garden. They hang out. At some point they are joined by a cheetah who is used to living with humans, so the reader will inevitably wonder whether any of the characters will be clawed to death. While the plot as I describe it sounds bizarre and insubstantial, the story is absorbing.

Ray and Staci have relationship issues, aggravated both by Ray’s unfaithful actions while they still living at the compound and by Staci’s growth, her realization that her current life of sobriety isn’t working any better than her earlier life of addiction. Ernie either has a fear of intimacy or a fear of being rejected. Perhaps those fears are two sides of the same coin. Ernie is paralyzed when he considers how to express his feelings about Coral. The fact that Coral doesn’t speak, rarely makes eye contact, and spends most of her time wandering alone in the woods doesn’t make a meaningful connection easy. Well, except for the cheetah, who seems to have a better understanding of Coral than her human friends.

In a refreshing change from most modern relationship dramas, the story offers closure. We know the fate of each character. We know whether couples will get together, stay together, or break apart, at least for the present. We even know what happens to the cheetah. The final scenes treat the reader to a significant surprise without resorting to melodrama. Three cheers for throwback storytelling that doesn’t leave all the characters in the wind, delegating to the reader the task of writing an ending to the plot.

Near the novel’s conclusion, Ernie has an epiphany that might provide valuable insight for others, even if they aren’t meth dealers. He regrets “always wanting what he didn’t have. Life was a series of situations, you find the good in each one, that’s all you can do, because none will last.” Other characters have their own moments of awareness. As domestic dramas go, this one is more interesting than most, not so much because of the plot (which is just a vehicle for the characters to grow or change), but because the characters are so far outside the mainstream that they represent a more primal version of humanity than most of us are used to seeing.

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